


Who Said Falling in Love Was Easy?

by Excusemylaziness



Category: Glitch Techs (Cartoon)
Genre: B.I.T.T is adorable, Canon Divergence, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, F/M, How Do I Tag, Kinda, Miko and Five are both 16, Miko is a bit ooc, My First AO3 Post, Tags May Change, Zahra is Bi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:34:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26278753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Excusemylaziness/pseuds/Excusemylaziness
Summary: Miko and Mitch fall in love. If only they'd just stop hating each other
Relationships: High Five/Zahra, Mitch Williams/Miko Kubota, Zahra/Simi
Comments: 10
Kudos: 59





	1. Age of Hinobi

“Hey champ we need to talk”

“What the… I remember you” Mitch says not trying to show his slight shock at being confronted

“And we remember you,” Miko says without missing a beat. She glares at the dark skinned british boy in the Hinobi truck. Trying to not let too much of her anger show.

“You stole my win. Uh apparently,”

“How can you know about that? I reset you myself.” Mitch grumbles getting out of the truck staring at the two with a quirk of his eyebrow “Everybody resets.” lifting his gauntlet and activating his goggles he resets the two.

“Is zapping people your solution to everything?”

Mitch gapes as the purple haired girl before him. It didn’t work? She didn’t reset. Miko closes in on him. Shock, confusion and even a bit of intrigue showed on his face as he couldn’t believe what happened. Immediately he moves to up the power on his gauntlet

“Pretty sad if you ask me. Especially since a tool like that could be used to help people.” Mitch tries to reset her again in hopes of ending this, but it doesn’t work. Just an error message above her. Not one to be deterred, Miko crosses her arms and continues “Instead of cheating” she emphasizes.

Standing there completely frozen, Mitch gasps and goes for his gauntlet again. This can’t be happening? Who the hell is she? So focused on the girl in front of him Mitch doesn’t notice Five ducks out of their way. “Everybody resets!” he yells, well frustrated with each step Miko takes and the reset not functioning.

“You love to play the hero, but, you’re really just some bully!” 

Mitch panics as she says this forcing him to take a step back. Maxing the mind wipe “I’ll wipe you clean!” letting this anger get the best of him Mitch was solely focused on the girl in front of him.

“Stop it!” Five yells, throwing himself at Mitch managing to get him to the ground. The two struggle as Five tries to get the gauntlet.

“Let go? You don't know what this thing does!” Everyone stops as the glitch contained in the gauntlet is released. The glitch crackles and hisses with energy as its sporadic movements head away from the teens. Kicking Five Mitch immediately gets the glitch back in his targeting area trying to keep his annoyance in check as Phil calls him. “Got it under control. Don't send backup.” The glitch escapes heading to the arcade. “Oh, boosh. I am done with you two whack a moles” opening a portal he traps them in the truck. “ This is a serious Mitchuation. I can't have you morons make it any worse!”

“Wait wait wait wait. Seriously? a Mitchuation”? Not sure whether to laugh at the absurdity or rolled her eyes at his arrogance.

“I used to look up to you…” Miko turns to Five with a deadpan expression at his dramatics “and now I don't even know who you are!” tears forming in Fives eyes as he stares at his idol.  
“I'll tell you who I am. I'm the guy who’s gonna send you back to the alley you crawled from. And this time, you're gonna stay there… where you belong” slamming the doors to the truck Mitch activates the security system. 

Mitch heads to the arcade to deal with the glitch. A girl who doesn’t reset. It shouldn’t be possible. And she’s with that fanboy tosser to boot. His win yeah right like he could ever win against me. But she did. Another voice in his head pipes up reminding him how he hadn’t actually won the first tournament. Mitch shakes his head trying to focus as he searches for the glitch. Urrrgh none of this makes sense. He thinks still letting his thoughts wander to the purpled haired girl and how she stared him down confronting him. Who does she think she is? So lost in thought Mitch let out a scream as the glitch appeared. He didn’t reach in enough time as it found its way to Chomp kitty. The plixels materialized in front of him “I hate retro titles” he smirks finally putting his thoughts on the girl to the back of his mind as he gets ready to face the glitch. But some part of him knows they won’t stay back there for long.

Chomp kitty lets out a roar sending a bunch of kids running past Mitch. He mind wipes them just as his headset beeps and says glitch techs detected.

“I said no backup!” the next thing Mitch sees is that the two of them come crashing through the wall with BITT. “I've had it with you griefers” he groans. “I'm trying to clean up them mess you made, and you keep making it worse!” 

“Chomp kitty?” Five exclaims watching the glitch devour Mitch and spit out his gauntlet.

“Strategic update run away!” BITT robotic voice calls out, moving to safety with the two techs trying to dodge the giant feline.  
“Uh, is there an instruction manual?” Five panics as the glitch destroys the arcade. Miko and Fives gauntlets begin beeping “Mitch? You’re okay?”

“I am stuck in the belly of a malevolent digital construct, so, no, I'm not okay! Help me you morons!”

“You want our help?” Five’s eyebrows reach his hairline almost in disbelief

“You’re gonna admit what you’ve done and help us put things right again!” Miko demands before she even wants to consider helping this jerk.

This girl again ugh. I’ve never met anyone so infuriating “Fine, just get me out of here! The static discharge is frizzing up my hair!” Mitch complains before the call gets cut off. Stuck inside a glitch. It's all their fault. And how dare they pretend to be techs. They don’t deserve to wear the suits. Even if she doesn’t look half bad in it. The same voice from earlier chimes in. What the… oh sod it. Before Mitch has time to dwell on his thoughts he feels the glitch absorb the power up. What are those two noobs doing?! He uses his gauntlet to calls them again “Use your gauntlets to drain its power. And get me out of here!” he can hear Miko ask BITT if the gauntlets have multi targeting just as the call gets cut. Heh smart girl, Mitch begrudgingly thinks to himself. “I take it back” he says aloud frustrated as the kitty's stomach starts to fill up. “Hurry! I am surrounded by toddler snot!”

Miko manages to lure chomp kitty back towards Five “Chomp on this.” he smiles before blasting it with the modified power up. The glitch explodes freeing the plastic balls, kids and Mitch.  
Mitch groans as he hits the floor hard. “Huh?”

“Hey, pro how’d you like your memory reset?” Mitch stares up at Five in disbelief as he has a gauntlet pointed right at him. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was possibly about to get his memory wiped he’d scowl at the matching smug grins the two of them held.

“Wha--” BITT interrupts chiming in that the tech gauntlets aren’t to be used aggressively and meant not to harm?

“Yeah?” Miko starts and Mitch frowns at the tone in her voice. “Well, your MVP here really needs to read the dang manual.” not bothering to hide the bite in her voice as she glares at Mitch.  
“You gotta believe me, i wasn’t really gonna do it! I was freaked you wouldn’t reset. Everybody resets!” Miko rolls her eyes, not completely believing him.

“You stole my win. Why?” keeping the gauntlet trained on Mitch.

“To protect your lame gamer status?” Miko rolls her eyes again as she steps forward.  
Briefly Mitch wonders if her eyes will get stuck that way as much as she does that “I am Mitch williams. I am the number one gamer in this city. You take that away from me, you may as well take everything.” He stands up getting annoyed especially with what he was about to say next “besides, that win was bugged. He wasn’t even the real winner. She was” pointing at Miko.  
“What?” the genuine surprise overriding her anger “But Five made the winning shot.” She states like it was obvious gesturing to Five.

“Yeah with your ball remember?” Mitch wonders how she was smart enough to get Five and track him along with quickly accommodating too using the gauntlet, but not smart enough to recognize it was her who beat him.

Turning his head he looks at Miko with mild surprise “So I guess you won.” 

“Huh” is all she says before the two break into smiles.

“No matter which one of us won, he still loses” both of their smiles become a bit more smug as Five activates the gauntlet again pointing it at a cowering Mitch.

“Please, don’t!”

“If we wipe your precious gaming career, you've got nothing left to protect.”  
Five keeps his gauntlet trained on Mitch. “I know I went too far, but do not take this from me. It's what I love. It's who I am.”

Miko‘s expression softens as his words sink in. Oh buttersnaps. We can’t do this. She thinks almost regretfully “Me, too.” looking at Five for solidarity

“Me, too” he deactivates the gauntlet, letting Mitch stand back up. Mitch looks between the two of them as their gauntlets start to chime.

“You wanna tell him or should we?” Miko steps up to Mitch challenging him again.

Ugh this girl doesn’t know when to quit. He thinks as he glances down at the image of Phil on his screen. After explaining everything to Phil Mitch ends up at Miko’s house. I cannot believe I’m doing this. He looks around as he stands in front of her parents with Phil to his right and Miko, Five and BITT to his left. “So… your daughter wasn’t lying when she told you a no joke giant monster hand came out of your TV and trashed your living room.” Her parents are staring at me like I’m nutters.

“I’m sorry, what exactly are you people talking about?” Her father asks.

Phil jumps in to smooth things over “we’re talking about offering your daughter and her friend here part time jobs in the Hinobi Store’s new technical support department.”

“A job? I do like the sound of that” her mother smiles as her father nods in agreement.  
“Especially if it makes you happy.” He adds.

“Whoo-hoo” Miko gasps while doing a happy dance thanking her parents. “Okay guys you can do it now.”

Phil resets her parents and they all leave before it finishes. Miko stands outside saying bye to Five as he bikes away and Phil drives off. Mitch is leaning against the truck glaring at her. “You got something to say you overrated waste of hair gel?” She feels some of her annoyance from earlier at what he had done creep back into her.

“You got lucky” is all he says pushing himself off of the truck taking a few steps closer to invade her personal space.

“Luck had nothing to do with it, mega cheater. It was all skill.” She spins around and smirks not backing down.

“Oh yeah well” Mitch gets cut off as his gauntlet chimes. He huffs in frustration not wanting to leave the purple haired girl just yet “Well when you realize your skills aren’t up to par I’ll even offer you a shoulder to cry on. Later noob.” He gets into his Hinobi truck looking in the mirror. He can see her sticking out her tongue and making faces at him. Shaking his head with a chuckle he drives off.


	2. Tutorial Mode

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another day another glitch. It's Miko and Five's first day at work. How will things bode for the new techs especially with a certain Brit hanging around.

After jumping through the portal gate Miko and Five run to the railing still in awe of how incredible their command center was “sup glitch techs we’re here! What? What?” Miko booms with infectious energy earning a few smiles from those chilling in the lobby. But it also warranted her a scowl from a certain British tech as he took his eyes off his holo vid. 

“Alert! Alert! There is one new message in your personal mailbox.” BITT’s robotic voice bounds up to the techs and Phil. 

Phil dismisses him asking instead for him to set up Five and Miko.“The rest of you, stop lurking in the lobby down there! Yeah you. Get on your morning patrols!”  
“Phil it's a slow day out there!” Mitch replies to his boss taking his attention away from his screen again before shutting it down completely.

Leaning over the rails Phils voice booms at the techs “well let's keep it that way!” The techs all scatter except for Mitch who uses a portal to appear next to BITT. He smirks at Miko’s disheartened groan at having to go through the tutorial.

“Well if it isn’t my least favorite grape girl and fanboy. You noobs finally might learn a thing or two.” Using his height to his advantage Mitch smirks down at Miko.

“Five did you hear something? Five?” Miko asks, deciding to ignore the Brits dig at her. She gets no response as Five is asking BITT and Phil something about the tutorial. Ugh this over styled griefer just won’t give me break. She thinks back to earlier in the store when the two got into an agreement in front of a customer or which ultra bash sisters game was better. Just ignore him Miko. Happy thoughts! Blasting glitches, snagging the last slice of pizza at dinner, getting a gauntlet, beating Five at battle carts. Not Mitch’s smug face. Not his know it all arrogant attitude. Who cares if he made some decent points and knew stuff I didn’t. He’s just a stupid head xp hog.

“Fine ignore me if you want but there's no way you're gonna last the tutorial.” Mitch says breaking Miko out of her inner debate, as he opens up his holo vid again.

Miko feels her face heat up in anger as she growls at Mitch “talking to me or your virtual girlfriend there?” Flipping her hair to disrupt his screen she gives him a smug smile of her own.  
Some of Miko’s hair hits Mitch’s face. Huh smells like honey. Not what I expected. Mitch shakes his head clearing his thoughts of the scent of Miko’s hair. Miko smiles seeing that Mitch doesn’t have an immediate comeback. “Pfff real mature. It's the new dlc for ultra blast sisters.” Holding back his laughter Mitch rather enjoys Miko standing there gaping at him in awe.

“But that's not supposed to be released for another two months.”

“When you’re a real tech who's always number 1 one the leader board you get perks like this. Not that you’ll ever get there.” Closing his holo vid Mitch gets ready to open up a portal.

Who does he think he is? How dare he underestimate me. There's never been a game I couldn’t crush. I'm Me-KO after all. “Alright ya level 100 wanker” Miko tries and badly imitates his accent, “when I complete the tutorial you gimme that dlc and uh… you buy me as many smoothies as I can drink from the groovy smoothie for the whole quarter.” Might as well get a bit extra if I can. Miko thinks to herself as she waits to see what he will do.

Mitch stops himself from stepping into the portal raising an eyebrow at her. She can’t be serious? His eyes glance over her. Miko’s face was slightly still red, as she had her arms crossed and a defiant look in her eyes. And she is. “Okay fine, but when you fail the tutorial you’ll keep my truck clean instead and wear a Mitch Williams Number 1 gamer shirt. And I don’t sound like that.” 

“You're on! Prepare to be Me-KO’d” she screams loudly before turning and heading to the sim room catching up with Five. Not bothering to see how Mitch was looking at her as she left.

By the time she's finished with the tutorial after dealing with Garbile Miko is utterly exhausted. She’s barely able to drag herself through the portal back to the lockers. She quickly says bye to Five as he has to rush off to help his abuela with something he’d promised. As she exits the Hinobi store she sees Mitch getting out of his truck. Suddenly I’m not so tired. Time to get mama her smoothies. Straightening up and running a hand through her hair she smirks as Mitch makes his way towards her. Miko waits until he’s reached and starts to open his mouth. “You’ve been Me-KO’d!” She says loudly while dancing circles around him “not only did I complete the tutorial but I totally helped save the branch from being shut down.” Her smile grows as Mitch opens and closes his mouth a few times before grumbling. He runs his hands through his hair a few times mussing it up slightly before speaking.

“I guess you're not as moronic as I thought” is all he manages as Miko grabs his wrist and drags him with her. “What are you doing?” Mitch asks while trying to free himself. Bloody hell? Why is she so strong?

“I’m collecting the first of many smoothies.” Excitedly she continues pulling Mitch until they reach the groovy smoothie. Throwing open the door she pulls him in with her not realizing she hasn’t let go as they get to the counter. A mile wide smile across her face “two strawesome mint smoothies please.” Looking over at Mitch she waits for him to order as well.

“Also one mixed berry” He sighs before closing his eyes and rubbing his forehead. What have I gotten myself into? Looking down he notices she’s still holding his wrist but her grip has loosened. Quickly he pulls himself free as he goes to pay for the smoothies placed in front of them. Taking his, he’s vaguely aware of the excited noise Miko makes as she starts drinking from both smoothies at once. Mitch almost chokes on a laugh while looking at her balance the two drinks while checking her phone. How is she this happy it's just a smoothie? Exiting the shop he notices she’s considerably deflated as they walk back to the store. “What's wrong with you?’ He didn’t mean to sound so harsh, but it happened anyway.

“Oh uh my mom can’t get me, she’s at some emergency practice for Lexi, Nica is out with her friends, and dad is with Geoffrey and Lee on their boys bonding thingy. And I didn’t bring my bike so I guess I’ll just have to either go back to the store or walk.” Putting her phone away she sadly drinks her smoothies already dreading the idea of walking.

“Oh for… ugh come on” Mitch says, directing her to the direction of his truck. Reaching the front door he notices she’s hanging back a bit. “Well, hurry up before I change my mind.” Getting in the driver's seat it takes a few more seconds for Miko to climb in. The drive is silent except for the occasional sipping sound. So she does know how to sit quiet and not be a bouncing ball irritation. Mitch glances over at her as Miko stares out the window. She’d almost be pretty if she was like this more often. Sighing, he turns his eyes back to the road.

Who knew he could actually be nice? Miko uses the reflection of the window to look at Mitch not realizing he’d just been looking at her. Mitch pulls into her driveway, should I say something or should I just get out? It wouldn’t be polite to just leave. Since when do you care about politeness? A voice in her head asks her in almost confusion. “Well um thanks for the ride” she says awkwardly “who knew you could be a gentleman when you're not threatening to memory wipe me and locking me in this truck.” She jokes as Mitch turns to her.

“Always there to help the damsel in distress” he smirks.

“I am not damsel in distress. I kick butt” Miko says proudly.

“Well in that case get out of my truck. I’ve got glitches to unload back at HQ.”

There’s the Mitch I know. “Fine fine. I’m going. But I’m looking forward to ALL the smoothies I’ll be getting not to mention that dlc.” Smiling wide she leans over and boops his nose.

Taken aback by the sudden physical contact Mitch just blinks at her. Shaking his head he grumbles “when you get your gauntlet I’ll give it to you.”

Feeling happy that she beat Mitch and satisfied from the smoothies Miko gets out of the truck and bounces up the steps of her house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So in the original episode there's no interactions between Miko and Mitch. So this is basically how I'll be writing this series with an emphasize on the relationships of the pairs mentioned in the tags. Also big thanks to everyone who left a kudos, comment, or just clicked on this fic.


	3. Going Going Gauntlet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Miko won the bet. And Mitch can't seem to keep his attention away from her.

“Welcome back techs! Please insert your gauntlets into the main repository to offload all glitches and claim your XP!” As BITT’s voice doles out instructions Miko and Five give each other a thumbs up as they watch in awe as the glitches are offloaded. “You have exceeded your XP goal and achieved Tech level two!” BITT says with all the excitement a robot could muster. They receive a round of applause from the other techs in the lobby. Miko takes a bow with Five hugs and fist bumps a few guys. The excitement however is lost as annoyed Brit looks down upon the two.

Scoffing Mitch glares at them “Noobs.” 

Haneesh and Bergy give him a weird look but decide it’s just Mitch being himself and they shouldn’t expect him to be excited for others. _They leveled up in one day? Amateurs. I can grind 3x as much XP without breaking a sweat. It’s not such a big deal._ Mitch thinks as he continues to watch the pair.

“You may now preview potential power upgrades.” The two gasp sharing excited looks as the demo there chosen upgrades.

Miko smiles “Ha ha! Sparkly hack and slash!” As she gives the blazing gemsword a few test swings.

Mitch chuckles quietly to himself, _she’s like a bird. Attracted to shiny objects and easily distracted._

“Rocket boots…” Five begins, getting cut off as he activates the boots. He’s thrust into the air only to faceplant a few seconds later “surprisingly difficult!” He groans before the boots activate again causing him to crash.

Watching Five be swept across the floor due to the boots Mitch lets out a laugh. Quickly looking around he’s thankful no one caught him.

“Yeah, you could each purchase those items with your individual XP points, or pool’em together to purchase unique loot like uh.. oh I don’t know… a companion pet.” Phil stares at the two techs.

Miko gulps as she and Five try not to let their nerves show “a companion pet?” She tries acting oblivious but it’s obviously not working against her boss.

“Yeah you know, like the unauthorized one you tried to hide in your tech van?” As Phil opens the doors as if on cue Ally pops her head out and caws.

“Yeah. Didn’t have the heart to zap her after all we’d been through.” Five says looking fondly at the npc bird.

“So, we can keep her?” At her question Five also turns to their boss.

“Well, if you want to pool your points together…” giving a non committal shrug Phil looks between the bird and the two techs.

“Let’s do it!” Miko gives Five a soft smile full of thanks.

_Huh I guess she can have moments other than when she’s quiet where she looks nice._ Mitch immediately grumbles and runs his hand through his hair. _What the hell? Where did that come from?_ He adjusts his position so he’s no longer looking directly at them. Now placing his back to the railing he starts fiddling with his gauntlet to take his mind off things.

“I’m not sure boots were meant to have rockets on them anyways.” Five jokes and Mitch’s attention is drawn back to the duo.

“Aw, thanks.” Punching him in the arm Miko beams as Five chuckles. They both turn to Phil expectantly.

“Now combining XP” a robot voice comes out of Phil’s controller before he scans and digitizes Ally, sending her to Miko’s gauntlet. “Companion pet acquired.”

Miko laughs, bouncing slightly in elation as she got to keep Ally “Yeah!” Fist bumping Five she does a small victory dance. _The only thing that could make this better are smoothies._ At the thought she quickly makes binoculars with her hands to scan the lobby for Mitch. She deflated a bit not seeing him at first until she continued searching and looked up. After spotting him she smiles, _there he is,_ before turning her attention back to her boss in just enough time to hear him congratulate them. They hug Phil through his complaints.

The two part ways as Five promised to watch some of the kids he helps with gaming. Miko smiles at her partner with a promise to hang and crush the next level in cyber stalkers for another day. She waits till he’s gone through the portal gate before making her way to the upper level. Noticing that Mitch is focused on something on his gauntlet she decides to sneak up on him. Waiting until she’s practically next to him she inhales before saying “Smoothie Time!”

“Bloody hell!” Mitch whips his head around bringing his face quite close to hers. He jumps not realizing how closed she’d gotten to him. “Do you have a mute button somewhere? And ever heard of personal space?” At this moment he wonders how anyone could deal working with her. She’s just got so much energy.

Smiling and rocking on her heels Miko grabs Mitch’s wrist once again “nope.” Continuing to smile as she answers his questions. “Now let’s go. I need to refuel!”

Mitch stops managing to get free catching her off guard. “You don’t have to drag me every time ya know. I can walk.”

“Does it bother you?” She tilts her head and tries to hide the smile starting to grow on her face.

“Yes,” Mitch says pointedly

“Then yes.” Quickly grabbing him again. Miko uses her gauntlet to open a portal pulling him through. “Time to conquer some smoothies” still holding onto him the duo power down and walk over to the groovy smoothie. Mitch sighs and resigns to the fact that Miko is just going to do whatever she pleases. “One mad mango and strawesome banana blast.”Miko orders and notices like last time Mitch orders the same smoothie. The two stand in silence and it starts to bug her so she turns to look at him. _I'm definitely gonna regret this,_ “farm a lot of XP today?”

Mitch is caught off guard as she asks him the question. He pauses for a minute debating whether he should answer or not. Sighing, he takes another moment to look at her. _I guess it won’t hurt to indulge her a bit._ “Yeah, but it was a bit of a slow day. Mostly low level glitches from old or used games.”

Miko smiles not having thought he’d actually tell her. “Cool cool, ya same here. I totally pwnd a massive mega ginko from flunky quest. It was almost an epic disaster when my gauntlet broke trying to capture an npc from bravestone 12. But the super mega tag team of HI Five an Me-KO were able to totally handle it. And Five helped me realize I wasn’t a total fail fish for not focusing and stopped me from being sent to the mung bean field.” Smiling through her whole mini rant Miko squeaks happily as their smoothies are ready.

Mitch stands there just staring at her. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” paying for the drinks before the two walk out to the parking lot. “Can’t you drink those like a normal person? And why order two? You could just get one with all the flavors.”

“No can do. Besides it just tastes better this way.” She says as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. She follows him as he heads towards his truck.

“Oh before I forget here.” Activating his gauntlet Mitch sends her the dlc. Her wristband beeps and she makes a face at him. “What? I’m a man of my word. You won fair is fair.” Miko just nods, obviously caught by surprise. He can tell she was expecting him to put up more of a fight. “Get in. You didn’t ride your bike today. Come on I don’t have all night.”

“How’d you know I didn’t ride my bike?” she asks after buckling in and relaxing in the passenger seat as he heads to her house.

_Oh boosh._ He couldn’t tell her it was because he pays attention to her. _It’s only because she’s weird and won’t reset. Yeah her and that partner of hers are just too annoying not to notice. Sounds like excuses to me._ He lets out a breath in frustration as a familiar voice chimes in. Realizing he’s been silent for too long and she staring holes in him. “ You didn’t look like a ruffled up robin when you came in today.” When in doubt just use insults.

Loudly slurping her smoothies Miko glares at him “Oh yea then what's your excuse for looking like a cockatiel everyday?”

Mitch just raises an eyebrow at her and holds back a smirk. _At least she gives as good as she gets._ Miko clearly satisfied at getting to insult Mitch back and him not saying anything sways in her seat while humming some tune he can’t place. It’s not long before he’s pulling into her driveway. “Alright now out of my truck.”

Smiling Miko leans over to him “and here I thought we were bonding”, she chuckles at his discomfort before hopping out.

“Hey Noob. Good work out there today.”

Miko nearly drops her smoothies “did you just compliment me?!”

Shrugging Mitch gives her another disinterested look “doesn’t matter no one will believe you if you say anything. Now get inside so I can go.”

_He’s waiting for me to get inside? Did he wait last time too? Is he making sure I’m safe?_ Miko tilts her head with her brows frowed as she sips her smoothies.

Mitch can practically hear her mind racing “I was brought up with manners. Now get inside” and with that he sees her turn around and walk up to her door. She gives him a big wave and thumbs up before going inside.

Miko goes to the window and peeks out seeing that Mitch just pulled out of her driveway. Smiling to herself she heads upstairs to her room. After changing into her pjs she gets in bed. Illuminated by a gentle string of party lights Miko writes in her journal. _Today was totally awesome. Five and I leveled up. We got Ally. oh and Mitch. The Mr. Big shot griefer. ‘I’m Mitch Williams’ was nice to me. To me. It was super weird but also kinda nice. He also gave me another ride today. And he waited till I was inside even though I could totally handle anything that steps up to Me-KO. I guess he’s not so bad after all. Or maybe it's a trick so that he’ll catch me off guard and then it’ll be a mitchuation._ Miko can’t help but laugh “pfffft mitchuation so lame.”

Suddenly the door to the room she shared with Lexi creaked open.

“Miko?”

“Mama?” Immediately closing her journal and tucking it away. Her mother joins her on the bed, handing her a bowl. Miko thanks her mom with a smile but hesitates in eating, as she waits for an explanation.

“I know you came home late today and I’m proud you’re working so hard. I’m also glad that you have a friend like Five, it's good that you’re getting out more. I wanted to say hi to him, but he wasn’t with you so who was it that dropped you off?” 

The gauntlet beeps saving Miko for a potentially awkward and in her mind super weird conversation.

“What was that?”

“Uh…”

“You’ve got a video game under there don’t you?”

Awkwardly laughing Miko hopes her mom won’t try to take it from her “no fooling you.”

“Well, enjoy it. You work hard, you play hard.” Her mom says while getting up “just not too late now.”

As soon as her mother leaves Miko releases Ally from her gauntlet. The large avian coos before smashing her face into the snack bowl “save some for me, ya turkey!” Miko laughs as she tries to keep the bowl away from Ally. Hugging the bird, Miko soon forgets about her confused feelings and puts all thoughts of a certain Brit behind her as she continues to play with her new companion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who left a kudos, comment, or just clicked on this fic. I've got a lot in store for these frenemies soon to be lovers. So seeing that people actually like my fic so far is very encouraging.


	4. Smashozaurs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mitch and Miko teeter on the line of being friends and enemies.

“Hey! Noobs” Mitch yells as he charges up his gauntlet before blasting the glitch “thanks for the distraction.” He smirks down at them as he walks to the edge of the open space. Chuckling to himself he can see the anger practically radiating from Miko and to a lesser degree Five.  _ She’s definitely gonna yell at me later for this.  _ Mitch thinks as it’s become routine for the two to get smoothies most days after work. 

“Hey! Hey what’s wrong with you!” Miko yells at Mitch and he can practically feel her rage at his audacity to ks their glitch. “Uh you can’t just show up and ks another tech's glitch Williams.”

  
Mitch smirks at the fact that he was right and that Miko has taken to using his last name on a regular basis. She’d joked with him that he liked hearing his own name too much so now she just uses his surname. Crossing his arms and standing in front of his Hinobi van Mitch gives her a disinterested look as she glares at him tapping her foot.  _ Cute.  _ He thinks.

“Qué te pasa, Mitch?” Five asks, not realizing he’s interrupting the little one sided glare off that Miko was having with Mitch.

“That...That thing! It came out of my game system. It just went all crazy.” Simultaneously Mitch and Five reset the frantic little girl. Meanwhile Miko is still glaring at Mitch and he’s doing everything in his power not to roll his eyes at her. “Uh I think I was going this way.” 

‘If you kiddies can’t handle glitches. Hey more XP for me.” Mitch smirks and gives Miko a wink before driving off. He laughs at her thoroughly unimpressed expression directed at him. 

“Man that dudes the worst. No wonder he’s got like zero friends.”  _ That’s not completely true. Now is it? You’re his friend kinda or maybe his something? _ Miko frowns slightly before playing with some of her hair.  _ Am I his friend? Nah that doesn’t feel right. Frenemy maybe? Or… _ Miko is pulled out of her thoughts by Five freaking out. Pushing her thoughts aside she goes to follow her partner. Miko was enjoying her time with Five and Casino forgetting about her little fight with Mitch earlier until a glitch showed up. Now she’s outside the arcade with a possessed tri-tops Casino and a panicking Five. “We’ve got to get him somewhere safe.”

“He’s not going anywhere.”

_ Oh great just what we needed. _ Miko slumps her shoulders slightly at the sound of Mitch’s voice.  _ Could he be anymore overdramatic.  _ She's snapped out of her thoughts at the sound of a gauntlet getting ready to fire. Immediately her and Five get in front of Casino and put up shields.

Mitch growls in frustration.  _ Has she gotten faster?  _ He wonders noting her reaction time was quicker than Five an almost instantly after his blast.

“Back off, Mitch!” Five says taking a step forward.

“Ho-ho, Five! You guys are superheroes? I mean could this day get any cooler?” Casino nudges Five in excitement.

“Clear the shot, beanpole!” sending a few more blasts towards the tri-tops Mitch closes in on the duo.

“Hey, when you come at my friend you better show respect, griefer!” Casino angrily shouts at Mitch as he accidentally knocks Five over pushing past the shields.

Mitch stops shooting at them. And tilts his head in slight confusion at the glitch. Something he inadvertently picked up from being around Miko. “Friend? A possessor.” Mitch chuckles darkly and backs up a bit “Oh, why didn’t you say so in the first place?”

_ I have a bad feeling about this. _ Miko thinks as she prepares herself for whatever Mitch is about to pull. Mitch pulls out a bigger blaster.  _ I hate being right.  _ She hears Five gulp and sees Casino stiffen in fear. Hearing the blast about to fire, Miko runs up to Mitch and side kicks the blaster. “Hi-yah!” Hitting him hard enough the blast misfires and Mitch falls to the ground a few feet away from her. _ Oh yeah! Haha take that ya griefer. _ Miko smiles to herself,  _ that felt good.  _ “Five, run!”

Pixelating a hoverboard Five nods at Miko “Casino, get on.” He grabs his friend leaving Miko to deal with Mitch.

_ Why is she so bloody strong? I swear I always have bruises from her. _ Mitch briefly thinks about all the times she manhandled him while they got smoothies. He grunts as he gets up from the ground glaring at a smiling Miko.  _ I’ll deal with her later _ . Mitch runs past her intent of getting Five and the glitch. He was just a bit too slow in noticing she had her gauntlet pointed at him. Miko shoots him from behind with a kitten blast. Meowing kittens and upbeat techno pop music plays as he gets stuck in the bubble. “Make it stop! It’s projecting kittens on the back of my eyelids!” Mitch shouts at her. Miko just smiles and bursts with laughter. She doubled over from laughing so hard “Miko I’m serious. Let me out.” Mitch was angry so angry that he didn’t even stop to admire her laughter like he usually does. All thoughts of Miko’s cuteness were tampered down at this moment.

Miko finally caught her breath and was now just smiling at Mitch being captured. “Ya, know this is a good look for you. Silent.” She copies his smirk without realizing it as she puts her hands on her hips and leans closer to the floating bubble. The smirk disappears from her face as Mitch mumbles and points to himself. “Huh? What are you trying to say?” she brings her hand to her chin and tilts her head “Oh! Oh,oh,oh” Miko claps her hands together “you want a turtleneck? You’re blowing out a candle?” She begins to gesture wildly with each guess. Mitch points more at his face, his cheeks puffed with air. “You can’t breathe.” Pointing at him with a smile he points back at her before flailing around. “Oh right, sorry.” Disabling to bubble it pops dropping Mitch.

An out of breath Boosh comes from Mitch as he blasts Miko. “I could have you banned for interference!” He says as he types something on his gauntlet. Both him and Miko know he won’t do it. That he’s just making threats because he’s upset.

Miko rolls her eyes as she coughs. Grunting as she starts to push herself off the ground.

For a second he debates whether to go help her up or not. But he knows she’s tough and his worries leave as he sees she can get up on her own. So he turns to head to his van.

“Have I told you you’re the worst recently?” Miko asks, shooting daggers at him with her eyes.  _ Was it payback for the kick or the kittens? _

“Everyday love it’s implied” he calls out to her in his usual drawl waving a hand in the air as he keeps walking. “One of the rarest glitch signatures ever recorded and, of course it falls right in her partners lap.” Mitch grumbles to himself. “What?” he stops mid step looking at his smashed truck. He hears Miko giggle as she walks up behind him, arms folded behind her head. 

“Dude it’s totally smashed. Smash, smash, smash it up.” Miko says jumping in the air as Mitch glares at her. “What? You kinda deserved it.”

“That noob’s sitting on an XP gold mine and doesn’t even know it!” Mitch says as he fixes his truck.

“A possessor is rare?”

“Uh ultrarare! And I’m gonna bag one if I’ve gotta go through Five’s little buddy to do it. Now you coming or what?” Mitch asks, stepping one foot into the truck. Miko frowns at him. Mitch just rolls his eyes and extends a hand to her.

Shaking her head Miko uses her hero voice and points her thumb at herself “Not while I have anything to”, she gets cut off as Mitch blasts her.

_ I don’t have time for one of her tangents.  _ ”Oh don’t look so glum sugar plum. It's a timed effect. Just long enough to shake you off and shut you up.” Giving Miko another wink reminiscent of this morning he drives off. “There you are, tiny tech” tracking Fives gauntlet Mitch heads towards the junkyard. “You make it too easy.” Mitch jumps in his seat as he hears a loud caw. Looking at his side mirror he sees Miko riding that overgrown thanksgiving dinner of a pet. “Ugh really?”

“Okay, Mitch I don’t wanna do this but… oh who am I kidding? I totally wanna do this!” Miko yells as she stands up on Ally.

_ Oh please tell me she’s not gonna do what I think she’s gonna do. _ Miko jumps from Ally magnetizing her gauntlet so she can stick to the side of his truck.  _ And she did it.  _ “Are you insane?!!”  _ Stupid question. _ “Get off before you seriously get hurt. And watch the paint!”

“Dude, are you seriously worried over the paint. You just fixed it from being smashed to all heck and you’re telling me to watch the paint?” Miko yells at him over the wind while laughing.  _ Uh oh _ . She thinks noticing he’s armed the side cannon and has it pointed at her.  _ He’s seriously gotta lighten up.  _ Easily dodging the beam, Miko climbs to the roof before dropping upside down near his window. “Mind if I drive?”

Mitch screams and swerves in the road. “Get off the roof Miko.” He says with a mix of anger and exasperation.

Miko shoots a portal onto the road in front of them before jumping off the truck and doing a superhero landing. Mitch screams as he drives right into not having paid attention as he watched Miko instead. Her gauntlet beeps “Go for Miko.”

“Greetings to you, techtag Miko.” Bitt announces taking her attention away from Mitch the billboard behind her where Mitch's van just shot out of.  _ He’s probably fine _ . She decides to ignore his screams, but Ally looks behind her to watch. “This is BITT.”

“Yeah I know. Hi BITT.” Miko absentmindedly pets Ally. Before the giant bird runs off. Ally runs back to the spot where Mitch's van went and looks over the guardrailing. Ally caws as she sees the van stuck in a tree. Cawing a second time she gets Mitch’s attention.

“I’m fine Ally. Go back to your owner. But let her know I’m very angry.” Mitch tells the bird as it caws once more before running off. He shakes his head remembering the first time Miko introduced the two.

Ally runs back to Miko for more head pats after checking that Mitch was okay. After hoping back on her feathered friend Miko finds Five. The two regroup before going after Casino.

“Aw man where did he come from?” Spotting Mitch Five frowns as he’s headed towards the bridge.

“Mitch only cares about the XP. Mush!”  _ And he might be extra determined since I’ve been messing with him.  _

As they soar through the air Ally cuts Mitch off causing him to swerve in the road again.  _ No wonder that pool noodle never lets her drive. She’s a bleeding menace on the road. Note to self if she ever asks to drive say no. _ As he gets closer to the bridge entrance he stops seeing that Miko and Ally are in the middle of the road. “I’ve had just about enough of you. I have told you lately how annoying you can be?”

“It's implied.” Mocking his earlier words to her. As the two of them stand off against each other before racing at full speed. Another kitten blast goes off as they crash into each other. 

“You’re loving this aren’t you?” Mitch says as monotonous as his accent will allow and the stupid upbeat meowing pierces his ears and Miko floats upside down next to him on Ally. She boops his nose in reply with a small smile on her face as he grumbles and sinks further into his seat.

“Maybe it’s the kittens, but you’re kinda cute when you pout.” She says reaching over to mess with his hair.

“Hey, hey! What have I told you before? Look all you want but don’t touch the hair.” Mitch says trying to ignore the funny feeling he got when she said he was cute.

“Pfffftt whatever dude no one can resist the power of head scratches.” She says reaching over again as the bubble pops. 

“Now that we’re outta that. It’s time for you to see how a pro deals with a glitch.”

“Ooooo. When’s one gonna get here?” She smirks before seeing Five in trouble. Miko rushes to her partner not letting Mitch get another word in.

Mitch sighs and waits for his moment. He sees Five get thrown into Miko and he makes a note to check up on her later.  _ Reckless girl. Letting her guard down just because the glitch is the moron's friend. There it is.  _ Mitch smirks seeing the glitch back in its plixel form. “Hey! Noobs! Thanks for the distraction.” Fixing his hair Mitch makes sure the glitch is secure.

“Pssh whatevs.” Miko dismisses him with a wave of her hand. More concerned about Casino. Mitch heads back to his van resetting the civilians on the bridge and he quickly sends her a message asking if she was hurt in the fight. By the time he’s in his truck she sends her reply. She's fine but is definitely gonna be sore and that he’s off the hook for smoothies today since she’s gonna hang with Five and Casino. Mitch smiles, glad she’s okay and sends her a message saying later princess. Miko sends him an emoji of a knight. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the show doesn't tell us exactly how much time passes between episodes, but I'm just assuming for the sake of the fic that enough time has passed for these two to be comfortable around each other in private.


	5. Castle Crawl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mitch and Miko don't seem to be very honest with themselves regarding their feelings. While Five takes an interest in a fellow tech.

“Oh wow I guess we really were the D team. Only now it's us who are..”

“Stuck” Miko gasps finishing Five’s sentence “castlestein!” Dropping to her knees dramatically she yells into the air.

“Okay, okay we can figure this out.” Five says putting torches on his fellow techs.  _ Or maybe not _ . He thinks as he sees Miko freaking out over not finishing the game. He starts to pace around a bit stopping in front of the other female tech. Staring at her Five blushes a bit.  _ I think her name was Zahra. Ella es linda. Cool pose too. _ Five shakes his head  _ atención, ahora no es el momento.  _ He turns his attention back to his partner. “Ok Miko time to snap out of it.” he sighs knowing this is only going to get harder before it gets easier. After calming her down the duo figure out what they need to do next.

“And that's how we defeated Nogrog.” Miko tells Mitch recounting her glitchy adventures as she unhooks her arm from his to grab their smoothies.

“You think that over dramatic cheeseball has fabulous hair yet you call mine a mop?” Slightly offended Mitch narrows his eyes at Miko as she hands him his.

“What? His hair is snakes. Snakes! Snakes are cool” she exclaims before nonchalantly sipping on one of her smoothies as she waits for the other.

“I can’t even begin to understand how your mind works carrot top.”

Miko frowns “carrots are orange.” 

“They have purple carrots” he says like it's common knowledge, drinking his own smoothie.

Miko's second smoothie is ready and she grabs it as Mitch pulls out his card to pay.

“So are you two dating?” the guy behind the register asks. 

Miko blinks in disbelief as Mitch stands frozen next to her. Regaining his composure he runs his hand through his hair before handing over his card again “what on earth gave you that idea?” He asks before glancing at Miko who still seems dazed from the question.

“Just see you two in here a lot recently.” The guy responds as Miko comes back to life. “You two seem close.” He says in a tone and Mitch doesn’t understand why it’s bothering him.

_ A bit barmy this one. Just because we come here doesn’t mean we’re dating.  _ Mitch almost glares at the guy. He’s around their age and the same height as Mitch. Olive skin and a mass of black curls sits atop his head.  _ Is he asking because he fancies her? That wouldn’t be a problem now would it?  _ Mitch sighs as a familiar voice appears in his head.  _ I’m only here because I lost that stupid bet nothing more. Right and it’s not because you’ve come to enjoy her company at all. Ugh I’m going insane.  _ His thoughts get cut off at the sound of Miko’s voice.

“Me and him?” She says pointing between herself and Mitch “pffft no way. We hate each other.” Miko easily dismisses, but can’t help the slight blush running across her cheeks. She sips her smoothies in hopes that neither of them notices.

Mitch nods in agreement, while the guy just gives them a weird look. For the first time that night Mitch notices how close she’s standing next to him. Their arms are touching and her hair brushes against him as each time she sways or bounces in place. Sensing the guy behind the counter was gonna speak again Mitch decides he’s heard enough of this guy's voice “well not that this wasn’t fun, but let’s go.” He says placing his free hand on Miko’s back as he guides them out of the shop. As they leave Mitch gives more thought to what the guy said.  _ I guess I could see why he thought that.  _

When they’d entered Miko was holding his hand as opposed to dragging him like she’d done when they first started this smoothie quest as she’d dubbed it. Mitch learned quickly that Miko is a very tactile person. She’d no problem dragging him, touching his hair or his nose, leaning against him and just invading his personal space. At first it annoyed him, but he learned it was too tiring to fight her at every turn it also didn’t help that she was deceptively strong. So he’s learned to just go with it and got used to her holding his hand or hooking her arm around his and all her nose boops. Now he didn’t even really mind it. It surprised him when he’d first realized he was okay with her touching him. He’s come to just expect it of her. 

Mitch was so lost in thought he jumped when Miko put her cold smoothie against his cheek. “Dude where’d you go? You totally zoned out on me.” 

“It’s nothing. Get in” opening the door for her. Miko curtsies her giggles muffled by the straws in her mouth. 

It was another little thing that they started to do. After they got smoothies he’d always take her home, even if she’d ridden her bike to work. He’d open doors for her and tease her calling her a princess or a damsel. While she played up him being a knight in shining tech and mocking his accent. “Thank you good sir.”

“Seriously I don’t sound like that.” Mitch feigns annoyance as he walks around and gets in the driver's seat. 

The drives are usually silent unless Miko forced him to listen to her music, they were debating more like fighting about games or smoothie flavors, or just talking about their day. At first Mitch thought he’d liked her best in those quiet moments but after spending time with her he’d remedied that thought process. He found that when she was being loud, a bit reckless and laughing were her best moments.  _ Opposites attract. _ Mitch grumbles and grips the steering wheel tighter at the intrusive thought. Miko having finished her smoothies in record time was nodding her head to the melody she was humming. It had annoyed Mitch for a while after he asked her what it was. All she said was that it was from a game, but wouldn’t tell him what game.

Miko caught Mitch looking at her but decided not to say anything. Instead she looked out the window. Her mind in overdrive mode from thinking about what the guy at groovy smoothie said.  _ Dating? Who ever heard of something so bonkers. Me and Mitch. The number one griefer and pain in the butt. Would never happen nah nope no way. Why not? _ A voice piped up.  _ Mitch isn’t so bad. He’s nice to you and you like being around him. You might argue with him, but he makes sure to check up on you after you’ve caught a glitch. You also like teasing him. He doesn’t have to give you rides home from work, but he does anyway. He always listens to you as well when you complain about your family. And he’s kinda cute.  _ Miko blushes at her thoughts listing Mitch’s good points. Shaking her head wildly as if it will get rid of her thoughts some of her hair hits Mitch. 

_ Smells like flowers this time,  _ he briefly thinks. “Hey watch it. I’m trying to drive here.” He complains but there’s no anger behind it. “Maybe tie it up before you kill us by blinding me with your hair.” 

Miko just sticks her tongue out at him. “You’re just jealous my hair is awesomer than yours.” Flipping her hair so it hits him again.

“In your dreams love. My hair is perfect….But yours isn’t always a complete disaster. You don’t look half bad when it’s up.” 

Miko takes a lock of her hair and starts playing with it.  _ Should I try more updos? _ She wonders before throwing an insult back at Mitch. “My hair is 10x better than that Pomeranian on your head. You should change it. If you want I can use my gauntlet to blast some of it off.” She smirks at him as she reaches to touch his hair.

She ruins his hair before he can smack her hand away. “Enough. Now get out” 

“Alright alright ya big baby.” She unbuckles her seatbelt “boop.” Reaching over she boops his nose which has kinda become their way of saying goodnight. Hopping out of the van Miko walks to her front door. 

_ Now if only she’d keep her hands off my hair. I’d dislike her less.  _ Mitch sees her go inside and he starts to pull off.  _ Liar. You like her just fine.  _ He sighs not wanting to acknowledge that the voice in his head was right.

Miko moves from the window after watching Mitch leave her driveway. 

“Why do you do that?”

Miko nearly jumps out of her skin not having heard her older sister enter the room. “Do what?”

“Wait by the window after you come in.” Nica says while scrutinizing her younger sister who blushes slightly. “You should cut it out before mom or dad catch you and ask who it is that’s always dropping you off.” 

Before Miko can say anything, Nica's phone beeps and she’s gone just as quickly as she appeared. Leaving a slightly flushed and confused Miko standing like an npc in the living room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't speak Spanish, but I want to stay close to how Five is in the show. I want to keep the little exclamations he does and I feel like he'd also think in Spanish. So I'll be using google translate as I write more of him in the future.


	6. Alpha Leader

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Miko and Mitch grow closer while Five acts like a dork around Zahra

“Hey, Mitch, we took out that drone swarm for ya!” Five yells to Mitch as he pets Ally.

“Yay, you ganked a few minions. You want a cookie for following orders?” Mitch says sarcastically as he goes back to fighting the boss' glitch with Zahra and Haneesh. They weaken the glitch and Mitch goes in for the kill.  _ Oh boosh _ . Mitch thinks and curses under his breath as he wipes away the slime he’s drenched in.

Five geeks out while watching the battle “whoa! Haneesh and Zahra were so cool out there. Man did you see how she scaled that glitch. She was like woosh and then slice and and cool hero landing.”

Miko smirks at her partner as he continues to gush over their teammate. “Why don’t you go talk to ‘em?” 

“Uh I don’t know. I don’t even know what I’d say.”

“Just say” Miko takes a moment to gather her hair to imitate Five’s “hi, you’re p cool. You can do it.” She says as she shoves him over to them.

“Uh hi.”  _ Be cool be cool be cool.  _ Five straightens up and tries to hide the blush on his face.

“Hey what's up?” Zahra asks as she and Haneesh turn to Five.

“Um I just wanted to say uh… You guys are p cool.” Five tries his best to duplicate how Miko did it.

“Aw thanks High Fly!” Haneesh says as Zahra grabs a gagging Mitch as they leave.

“See ya” Zahra smiles at him.

Five gives her a weak smile.  _ Estupido. All I had to do was be cool. Ugh she probably thinks I’m lame. _ Five thinks to himself before Miko and Ally cheer him up and they head back to HQ. As the offload there xp Phil's tells them and Mitch’s raid team of another team of glitches they need to take care of. And with Mitch in quarantine with the nano flu Miko volunteers Five to be raid leader.

“Well we’re countin’ on ya, new guy. Don’t mess it up.” Haneesh tells Five as he goes to leave. Zahra shoots Five a wink before heading off with Haneesh.

Five laughs nervously and tells Miko he needs a few minutes to himself as he heads for the locker room.

_ What to do? Five’s gone to prepare being a leader for the mission and just standing around here is boring. _ Miko scans the lobby for something fun to do. She smirks as she heads over to an angry Mitch in his quarantine tube. “Whoa never seen a deadman walking before. Or is it more like floating?” She holds back her laughter as Mitch glares at her from the tube.

“It’s not funny Miko.” Mitch grumbles as he slumps against the glass. He quickly scans the lobby making sure no ones close enough to hear them.  _ Won’t do me any good if people think I’m going soft around the sugar plum. _

“It’s pretty funny from where I’m standing.” Taking a step closer to the glass Miko blows on it, fogging it up so she can draw shapes on it. 

“Alright that's enough of that.” Mitch complains and uses the metal arms to push her back a bit.

“Booo. What else am I supposed to do to bug you if I can’t play with your hair.” Miko pouts as she starts tapping on the glass and making faces.

“How about annoying that partner of yours. Where is the string bean anyway?”

“Went to the lockers to get in the zone for being raid leader.” She says nonchalantly as she starts drawing on the glass with a marker.

_ Where’d she even get that?  _ Mitch says nothing as he floats away from her while wiping away the still wet drawing.

“Hey! My masterpiece!” He hears Miko complain as he heads to the locker room. 

As he enters Mitch hears Five talking to himself. _ He’s going to completely ruin my spot on the leaderboard.  _ Mitch decides to lay down the rules for Five and get him to understand that his plans were terrible and he needed to be more like him if he wanted to succeed. As he leaves Mitch opens his locker for Five. 

Five looks into the locker seeing that Mitch is totally self absorbed.  _ Well what did I expect? _ Five reached into the locker to grab Mitch’s pure man hold me hair gel when something catches his eye.  _ Well that's odd. Didn’t expect him to have anything here not about Mitch.  _ He thinks while noticing a few colorful magnets and stickers of anime characters placed on the door under Mitch’s photos of himself.  _ Why do these look familiar? _ Five is broken from his thoughts as his gauntlet beeps. “Venga! Get it together Five.” He says while looking at the hair product “Boosh.”

“Hey we’re here, I mean uh...oops. Nailed it.” Miko finally gets the truck on the ground after landing on top of the park gate and crashing the admission booth.

Zahra leans over to Haneesh “she does not get to drive again.” Haneesh nods silently agreeing with her before they all get out of the truck.

“So where's the fearless leader?” Zahra asks Miko as she de pixelates her buster sword.

“I dunno know. He said he’d meet us here as soon as he got” Miko pulls a confused face as she looks at Five walking through a portal “uh...changed?”  _ Oh nerds he looks like Mitch. Why does he look like Mitch? His curly poof is gone. _ Miko wasn’t listening as Five explained about the glitch’s.

__

“Any questions?” 

“I’ve narrowed them down to one. Can I touch that hair?”  _ I wonder if it feels like Mitch’s. _ She thinks as she instinctively reaches to mess up Fives hair like she does Mitch’s.

At Haneesh’s laughter, Five pushes Miko off of him.  _ Keep it together Five. Don’t embarrass yourself. You’re the leader. _ “Zahra, carry out the order.”

“You got it, new guy.” Zahra smirks at him before she and Haneesh do as he said.

“Whoa!” Miko and Five are both awestruck staring at the move Zahra just pulled. Five is so stunned his hair pops back into its usual look.  _ Asombrosa. Shes just...wow _ . Five thinks before catching himself. Five does Mitch’s signature hair fix and uses the comms to get the report from Zahra.

Throughout the mission Five was becoming more demanding and not listening to the rest of his team. Miko was getting annoyed especially after she just saved him and he yelled at her.

“You should hear yourself! What? Did you get bitten by a Mitch-pire? Blah! I want to lead your team!”

“Seriously you guys!” Zahra tries to interject but gets ignored.  _ They’re acting like children. _

“Everything's a joke to you,” Five tells Miko.

Miko scoffs stepping up to Five, she shoves him a bit. “Me? Have you even looked in a mirror lately, or do Mitch-pires not have reflections? 

Both Haneesh and Zahra were unimpressed and annoyed by their fellow techs. Zahra was about to try and break up the fight when the glitches showed up. Five accepts the 1v1 challenge and loses allowing him and his team to be caught and separated. After some reflection atop the test your strength game Five knows what he must do. Once Ally helps him down he frees his team and apologizes.

“Sorry for getting you all into this mess. I just wanted you guys to respect me like you respect Mitch. But the truth is I’m nothing like him.” Five throws away his jacket and wipes the hair gel away as he turns to face his team.

“Like we respect Mitch?” A thoroughly confused Zahra says.

“That guys the worst. Who told you we respected him?” Haneesh asks, having the same expression on his face as Zahra.

“He did.” The group says in unison before they start laughing.

“It's okay you goof.” Miko sighs as she puts her hand on Fives shoulder.  _ Note to self remember to yell at Mitch later. “ _ I couldn’t stay mad at this face anyway.” She says while pinching and stretching Fives cheeks as he grumbles hearing Zahra and Haneesh’s laughter behind them.

Five listens to his teammates and they work together coming up with a plan that will take out the glitches. Using himself as bait Five manages to distract the glitches long enough for the plan to work and them to depixelate.

Smiling at the younger tech Haneesh congratulates him. “Great job, High Five. And hey… mad respect.” 

“That was... v cool.” Zahra says clapping him on the back with a small smile.

“They know my name.”  _ SHE knows my name. And thought I was cool. _ Five stands there stunned as he watches them walk away.

“And to think, I knew you before you were a big shot.” Miko jokes hugging her friend as they head back to the Hinobi store. Once back they go offload the xp and glitches.

“So looks like you didn’t completely muck it up newbie.” Mitch leans against the glass as he side eyes Five.

“You know what, Mitch? You never needed to worry about your precious score. Your team is amazing.”

“Accurate. You’re not so bad yourself Five.” Zahra winks at Five causing him to blush. 

“Aw thanks Five.”

“Today was so fun I’m thinkin’ maybe I should lead the next mission. What do ya think Mitch?”

“Yeah” Haneesh says with a smirk “we should start a rotation.”

“What? What?” The panic evident on Mitch’s face as he slams his hands against the glass

“Gotta go. Feel better. Kay bye!” Zahra waves at Five and Miko as she leaves with Haneesh. Mitch angrily follows them.

“Ya done good, cap. But from now on I give the orders” Miko says dramatically, messing with her hair so it poofs up like Mitch’s. “Boo-oosh!”

Five laughs and runs away from Miko “aah my partners been bitten by a Mitch-pire!”

“That is not what I sound like!” Mitch yells at the duo as they run around his tube. Soon they get tired and leave him to sulk.  _ Stupid blueberries. They go off on one mission and now my team is a complete mess. _

Miko and Five head to the lockers. “So you coming over? There’s this level in” Fives sentence abruptly stops as he sees Zahra packing up. Miko looks between the two and roughly elbows Five. 

“Why don’t you go talk to her?” Five gives Miko an unsure look before she continues talking. “We can game another night. Now turn up the charm stats and go.” Miko pushes Five and he nearly runs into Zahra’s open locker. She smiles before going back to the lobby. Miko had a feeling that she should try and give her friend some privacy. She spots Mitch alone over in the common area “sup Williams.” She says while taking out a marker to draw on the glass with.

“Thought you left.” He raises an eyebrow at her. As she starts drawing he just sighs. Since no one else is around he doesn’t care if she doodles on the glass. He actually quite likes her drawings.

“Was gonna, but Five was being a nervous baby again. So now I’m here.” She mutters as she focuses on her drawing. “How much longer you stuck in this thing for?”

“I have acquired the vaccine for the nano flu you contracted earlier today.” BITT floats over holding a needle.

“Finally. It’s been like twelve hours.” Mitch complains as BITT releases him from quarantine. BITT quickly sticks the needle in Mitch’s arm “ow you bloody bot. Could’ve at least warned me.”

“That would’ve been less efficient. Statistically it is easier to administer when one is distracted.” BITT responds before floating off.

Mitch heads off to the lockers and Miko skips and twirls behind him before jumping through the door he’s held open for her. Walking over to his locker he opens it grabbing his jacket.

Peaking in his locker Miko laughs as she reaches past him “pure man hold me? Dude you’ve got more hair products in here than me and my little sister even own.” Mitch snatches the gel back and Miko’s laughter dies down as something catches her eye. “You kept them?” The surprise in Miko’s voice didn’t go unnoticed as she looked at the stickers and magnets she’d designed stuck to the inside of this locker. 

“Yeah well, your drawings aren’t terrible and what kinda gentleman would I be if I just tossed a gift I got.” He replies as he shrugged on his jacket.

“Thanks I’m glad you like them.” Miko blushes slightly and plays with a long strand of her hair.

Unconsciously Mitch reaches out and touches Miko’s hair.  _ Oh boosh!  _ He thinks as she freezes and looks up at him.

“What are you doing?” She asks not with an accusatory tone but one of curiosity.

“I uhh..um”  _ bollocks what the hell am I doin? Say something. Anything! Try telling the truth. _ An annoying voice piped up.  _ Eh why not. _ Mitch lets out a sigh while still holding her hair, letting his thumb run over the strands. “I’ve been trapped in a glass and metal tube for the better part of the day I just… I just wanted to feel something not cold and metal.” Mitch waits for her reaction and is surprised when she just smiles at him.

“No need to be shy, I touch your hair all the time.” As if to prove her point she reaches up to ruin his hair. “Besides we both know my hair is way nicer than yours. Bow before my silky tresses.”

Mitch just rolls his eyes as he continues to feel her hair. “It’d be nicer if you actually did something with it. You look good when it’s up like when we’re in the store.” 

Mitch is so focused on her hair he doesn’t notice the blush on her face deepen. “Well I’m actually not that great at doing styles. So I just stick with what I know.” She admits quietly. Mitch just looks at her before walking her over to a bench.

“Sit and wait here.” Mitch says before going back to his locker. Miko does as she’s told, tapping her feet and humming as he comes back with a brush and a few hair ties. He gets behind her and starts brushing her hair.

_ Should I ask him? Or just let him continue? It’s been a long time since someone else did my hair. Also does he even know what he’s doing. Why am I letting him do this anyway.  _ Miko bites the inside of her cheek as her thoughts race.  _ I should stop him right? But why? It feels good. And it’s not like you really mind him touching your hair. Besides like you said earlier it’s only fair. Plus you like him.  _ Miko’s face is fully flushed at her last thought.  _ No that can’t be right. Like him you know as a friend. Yeah yeah a friend. That’s all.  _ Mitch cleared his throat snapping her out of her thoughts. He handed her a mirror “wow. How’d you get them to be so perfect.” She asks referring to the two buns in her hair. “I look just like the girl from block brawlers!” Miko messes with the half of her bangs he left down and he swats her hand away.

“Thought it was appropriate since you hit hard enough to be in the game” Miko sticks her tongue out at his remark before she goes back to admiring his work. Mitch just smiles at her excitement over the simple style. “Come on. Lets get some smoothies and go. You can even tell me how that beanpole managed to not muck things up.” 

“Ahhh! Now I remember. I’m supposed to yell at you.” Miko exclaims as they walk towards the portal. 

“What? Why?” 

“Because Five was acting all weird and bossy and then I realized it was because you,” she dramatically points at him only for Mitch to slap away her hand, “You infected Fives brain like the Mitch-pire you are.”

Mitch rolls his eyes while shaking his head Miko continues rambling on as they walk into the portal. She doesn’t notice the small smile on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is probably one of the hardest chapters I’ve done so far since now I’m adding in Five’s interactions and thoughts on Zahra. I’m still trying to balance writing more characters. So let me know what you think. Did I do good? Was it bad? Want me to put more characters in? Also I feel like Miko would be good with her hands and that in the rare times she's not crushing video games she’d be crafting since she needs to keep her hands busy. And yes I headcanon that Mitch is basically a hair stylist
> 
> Sorry for the delay, but now I finally have time to write again. Big thanks to anyone who left a kudos and comment. I'm really surprised people are still reading this.


	7. Collection Quest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nica finds out about Mitch. Sibling teasing ensues as she notices how her sister acts around her "friend"

“Here's your voucher. Thanks for shopping Hinboi” Zahra says as she waits for the next customer in the massive line to step up.

After pushing through the crowd Five manages to get to the register where he sees Haneesh, Miko and Zahra. “Hey, guys it’s---”

“Get back in line creeper!” Zahra cuts him off shooting multiple price tags at him.

Pulling a tag off his mouth Five puts his hands up in defense “Zahra its me!”

She blushes at him and gives him an apologetic smile.

“Folks, we’ve got a special today on tall kids. Buy now and we’ll throw in a free hairnet.” Miko jokes over the speaker system and Five gives her an unimpressed look as she beams at him. He starts to pull off some of the sticker tags Zahra had shot at him.

“Sorry, Five. Since the sneakers went on sale this crowd had us all on edge. Here let me get that” Zahra reaches over to help pull a tag off him.

Five blushes and laughs nervously “thanks Zahra.” She smiles at him which causes his blush to deepen. Behind her Miko has a very familiar smirk on her face that Five can’t quite place as she raises an eyebrow at him.

“Hey! Hey! Limit one per customer!” Their boss yells causing all of them to look at where he’s struggling to get the box away from the customer.

“Why do people waste time lining up here when they can just preorder online like I did?” Five asks while looking at his tablet “wait. Didn’t I? The horror courses through Five as he remembers not confirming his order. “I didn’t preorder! Uh, Phil, hold one pair for me.” He tries to yell at his boss, but his hopes are shattered at seeing the last boxes be tossed into the crowd as Haneesh puts up sold out on the screens.

“Mitch set aside four pair.” Haneesh tells Five and he immediately perks up.

“He did?”

“That’s right.” The Brit says as if on cue walking in while wearing a pair of the sneakers. He drops the four boxes “two for me, two to sell, one to stock and one to rock.” He leans against the counter tilting his head back and he gives Miko a quick wink. She rolls her eyes at him and goes back to talking with Zahra hoping the other girl didn’t notice the interaction. “Wanna buy a pair? I’ll give you a nice friend discount.”

“Wow. Thanks Mitch!”

“That’ll be $600.”

“That's like three times more!” Fives loudly exclaims, drawing Miko and Zahra’s attention again.

“Meh. we’re not great friends.” Mitch glances at Miko,  _ Now if she asked for a pair I’d have to change the price. _

Five stomps away from Mitch towards Miko and Zahra. Zahra pats Five on the back as they walk back to the lockers. Miko hangs back waiting until they’re outta sight. “You don’t have to be such a pain in the neck ya know.” she punches him in the arm. 

Mitch rolls his eyes while rubbing the sore spot “Oh, but it's right fun. Besides he should’ve preordered like everyone else who works here. Speaking of which I didn’t see your name on the list.”

Miko just shrugs, playing with a loose strand of hair “Not my style.”

“Right. Well if you change your mind I’d be willing to give you a pair with an actual discount.” He takes a moment to admire the ways she always wears her hair up while working. 

“A friend discount?”

“A something discount.” As Mitch says this, Miko's face heats up turning stoplight red. He smirks as he walks past her “see ya later princess.”

Miko takes a few minutes to calm down before heading down to HQ.  _ Stupid Mitch.  _ She heads down to HQ. One minutes she’s trying to comfort Five over the sneakers the next she’s planning a quest to smash gems with him and Bergy. Only for her plans to be put on pause by her mom adding a new rule to her fake bonding with Nica. Surprisingly she manages to not only complete the quest, but actually bond with Nica while sticking to the selfie rule. They head back to Hinobi and Miko can’t wait to wipe the smug grin off Mitch’s face when they show up with all the xp they earned.

“Well if it isn’t the blueberry brigade back from patrol.” Mitch says to Miko, Bergy, and Five as he walks out of the Hinobi store

“Read it and weep Williams.” Five smirks as he holds his gauntlet up.

Mitch frowns not liking hearing his last name out of Fives mouth. He preferred when Miko said it. “What? How’d you lowbies earn all that xp?” He asks in disbelief.

“Oh you know, we just defeated your ordinary average hidden boss… like a boss.” Bergy leans on Mitch’s shoulder smirking at his use of Mitch’s own words from earlier.

“Huh I guess you can bust out a pair of limited edition trainers after all newbie.” Mitch gets cut off by Phil mentioning the newest sneakers. He spares a quick glance at Miko before glancing at the Groovy smoothie. She winks at him and a small smile threatens to creep onto his face. Realizing there's too many people around he heads back through the doors “I better go preorder.” He uses it as an excuse to wait for the others to leave. 

The trio head down to HQ to offload there xp. Five and Bergy settle in the lounge area and it looks like they’re about to play Castlestein 6. Miko declines the chance to play and heads to the lockers and quickly jumps through the portal. She sees that Mitch is waiting for her by the register, but to anyone else he’s just pointlessly scrolling through his phone. Miko walks past him making sure to hit him with her hair. She could just walk by normally, but where's the fun in that. Mitch nearly dropped his phone as he was assaulted by purple locs. He grumbles under his breath and waits a few beats after Miko goes through the doors to follow her. Mitch doesn’t even get two steps outside before she’s in his face.

“So Williams I was thinking since you talked such trash about questing earlier. I should get a reward since we totally whooped your butt in xp today.” She’s practically bouncing around him. 

Mitch just raises an eyebrow at her “Aren’t the smoothies enough reward already?” He reaches out to stop her by placing his hands on her shoulders.

“Nope” she says with a pop. Smiling up at him she boops his nose “I want you to finally try a different smoothie. You always get the same one, it's so laaaame.”

Mitch was about to respond but was cut off by a brown haired girl walking up to them calling Miko’s name.

“Miko so mom said” Nica stops herself at the scene before her. Raising an eyebrow she looks between Miko and Mitch “who’s this?”

Mitch lets go of Miko turning to face Nica with a smile on his face “Mitch Williams. It's a pleasure to meet you. And you are?”

Miko’s eyes nearly pop out of her head. She’s gotten used to Mitch being nice to her but seeing him be polite to others was still shocking.

Mitch notices Miko’s shocked expression and smirks “I’ve told you before sugar plum I’ve got manners. I just decide when to use them.”

Miko scrunches her face at him sticking her tongue out. Catching Mitch off guard she jumps on his back and runs her hand over his hair.

“Miko quit it. You’re ruining my hair!” He yells trying to shake her off. Miko just does her bad imitation of his accent and repeats his words to him. 

Nica stands there just watching her sister and her possible boyfriend.  _ Interesting. _ She clears her throat catching the attention of the duo. Nica can’t help but chuckle as her sister blushes and scrambles off the boys back.

“Mitch this is my older sister Nica.” Miko says feeling awkward as her sister gives her a look saying they’re definitely going to talk later. 

“Well not that that wasn’t entertaining but mom said she’s gonna be late. Sooo we’re basically stranded and to make things worse my phone is on 15%”.

Miko glances over at Mitch and he just nods his head. She beams and hugs him. The interaction doesn’t go unnoticed by Nica. 

“Right then let’s grab some smoothies and get you two home.” Mitch pulls Miko off him and spins her around so she’s facing the direction they’re headed in. Miko unconsciously grabs his hands intertwining their fingers as they walk.

Nica doesn’t say anything, deciding to just observe her little sister. As they enter, Miko drags Mitch to the counter as she orders her smoothies. Miko is vibrating with energy as Mitch just rolls his eyes and calmly watches her.  _ They suit each other. _ Nica thinks as she orders her mango smoothie. She goes to pay but the cashier shakes his head and points to the now arguing duo. 

“He said he’d pay for it. He always pays when they come in.”

_ Always? _ She glances at the pair.  _ Time to do a little sisterly snooping.  _ Nica gives the boy a weird look “how often do they come in here?” 

“Well they work at the Hinobi store so we’ve figured it’s whenever they’re on the same shift and finish. Which is pretty often. Usually it’s around this time or later. Oh but one of the other guys says they sometimes come in around lunchtime.” The guy says as he preps the ingredients for the smoothies.

“Hold on we?” The confusion written on her face.

“Yeah a bunch of us have a bet going on for when those two will finally get together. They’ve been coming here for a while and kinda just dance around each other.” 

“How do you know they aren’t together already?” Nica frowns wondering why her sister isn’t with the guy when he obviously makes her happy. She urges him to continue as he makes the smoothies.

“My buddy Antonio has a crush on her. One night he asked them and they denied it. He’s still got hope like an idiot. It’s obvious those two like each other.” 

Nica nods her head in agreement as he places the lids on the smoothies. “Isn’t weird for you guys to be betting on customers?”

The guy just shrugs and places the smoothies on the counter “not much happens around here. It’s becoming entertaining watching these two.” As he finishes his sentence the two in question stroll over.

“I’m totally right!”

“In your dreams, princess.” Mitch pays for the smoothies as Miko grabs her usual two and Nica grabs hers. Miko let’s out a delighted noise as drinks from both. “Hey hey one of those is supposed to be mine. Unless you want me to order my super lame one” he uses air quotes. Miko drinks a bit more before shoving the smoothie in his face. Mitch takes a sip “it’s fine I guess.” He grumbles.

“You like it” Miko sings, looping her arm in his as they head for the door.

Nica and the guy behind the counter just watch them and both shake their heads. She waves at the guy as she catches up with her sister.

“Thanks for paying.”

“No worries. I already pay for one Kubota so why not the other.” He glances down at Miko as she happily drinks her smoothie while tapping a beat on his arm.

“So I was just told” Nica looks at Miko who blushes a bit.

“What?” He smirks as they reach his truck “keeping me ya dirty little secret aye princess?” Mitch teases as he opens the door for Miko and Nica.

“Yeah why is that? Huh Miko?” Nica decides to get in on the teasing.

“You two suck you know that. You can’t tag team me like this,” as Miko complains Mitch and Nica just laugh. 

The ride to the Kubota residence was filled with an awkward silence until Miko started flipping through Mitch’s playlist. Usually the two would talk or much to Miko’s own surprise, sit in comfortable silence, but with the addition of her sister Miko felt like she was being watched and didn’t want to give her sister more to interrogate her on. Before they realized it Mitch was pulling up in their driveway. Miko gives him a customary nose boop and she and Nica get out of the truck.

“It was nice to meet you Mitch.” Nica says while waiting on Miko.

“The pleasure was all mine.” Miko rolls her eyes and groans at his politeness before pushing her sister up the walkway. “G’night blueberry.”

“See ya tomorrow Williams.”

As soon as Miko and Nica get inside Nica smirks at her sister. “So that’s who’s been bringing you home all the time and why you’ve been so happy.” Nica watches Miko blush and starts fidgeting ”lets go. You need to tell me everything.”

Miko groans knowing she's in for a long night as her sister drags her upstairs.

**Author's Note:**

> I’m a sucker for enemies to lovers and I feel like that could apply to Miko and Mitch. They’d have an interesting dynamic. So basically I’m just adding more interactions between the two to develop a relationship. I love this show and wanted to try writing something so here it is. If anyone likes it I'll probably continue.


End file.
